Prominent Churchmen say Holy Eucharist kneeling and on the tongue must be brought back
ROME (ChurchMilitant.com)
- Faithful Catholics are gathering in Rome for a conference on the eve
of the Amazon Synod to reinforce the centrality of the Holy Eucharist to
Catholic belief.
The conference, called "Every Knee Shall Bow — The Majesty
and Infinite Love of Holy Communion," will be held on Saturday at Santo
Spirito in Sassia — yards away from St. Peter's Square. The church is
also called the official sanctuary of the Divine Mercy devotion in Rome.
Contributing speakers will include Cdl. Malcolm Ranjith —
the former secretary at the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cdl.
Raymond Burke, Bp. Athanasius Schneider and Msgr. Nicola Bux, a
theologian and former consultor to the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith.
The gathering will focus on reinforcing the Church's long-held tradition of kneeling and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue.
In a September interview,
Cdl. Robert Sarah asserted, "The decline of faith in the Real Presence
of Jesus the Eucharist is at the heart of the current crisis of the
Church and its decline, especially in the West."
"The profound crisis that the Church is experiencing in the
world and especially in the West is the fruit of the forgetting of
God," he said, adding, "If our first concern is not God, then everything
else collapses. At the root of all crises ... is the forgetting of the
primacy of God."
In August, a poll
revealed 69% of self-identified Catholics think Holy Communion is
merely a "[symbol] of the body and blood of Jesus Christ," with less
than one-third of all Catholics saying they believe "during Catholic
Mass, the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus."
The profound crisis that the
Church is experiencing in the world and especially in the West is the
fruit of the forgetting of God.Tweet
The poll also shows more than 1 in 5 of Catholics (22%)
know the Church's teaching on the Real Presence in the Eucharist but
reject it.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reacted with a Facebook post asking Catholics, "What are some ideas to solving this issue? We want to hear your opinion."
While the USCCB suggested it's own booklets
telling Catholics to read about "how Jesus wants to transform your life
through this sacrament of his Body and Blood," the majority of those
responding advised traditional practices most U.S. dioceses and archdiocese have abandoned:
- Masses should be said ad orientem
- Communion rails should be restored
- Tabernacles should be front and center
- Ordained priests and deacons should distribute Holy Communion
- Communicants should receive while kneeling and on the tongue
- Communion in the hand should be banned
- Communicants should dress appropriately
- Gregorian chant, sacred music and Latin at Mass should be restored
- Sacred silence at Mass should be restored
- Eucharistic adoration should be promoted
- Homilies should teach the Real Presence
- Remind communicants to receive only in a state of grace
- Encourage confession and make it available before Mass
- Pro-abortion politicians must not receive Holy Communion
Very few bishops, however, reacted to the information revealed in the poll.
Peoria, Illinois, Bp. Daniel Jenky responded,
"I believe it is a grave obligation for me to try to state as clearly
as I am able some basic truths about the Blessed Sacrament," adding,
"The clergy and faithful therefore share a perennial responsibility
before Almighty God to pass on Divine truth to future generations, in
season and out of season, uncompromised and undiminished."
Jenky
noted, "Yet today, we are forced to admit that for several generations,
the Church may not have effectively passed on even some core elements
of Catholic Christianity to those whom may now constitute the majority
of our members."
Bux said in a September interview
that if a priest "first obliges a believer to stand up to receive Holy
Communion, or comes to remove kneelers from the church, it means that
the devil has entered the temple."
He added that the devil "pushes priests to remove this
element that recalls the First Commandment: to love the Lord your God
and serve him alone!"
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/rome-conference-restoration-of-eucharistic-reverence-to-end-crisis
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